Each week of the Virtual Homeschool Fair has a theme, and this week's question is "How do we cover it all?" Honestly, it's next to impossible to truly cover it ALL so we have to decide what subjects are most important and figure out how to cover those, and then move on from there. We're homeschooling high school, so the essentials are the core academics and the required credits for graduation. So that's where we start.

Our graduation requirements at present are:

English - 4 credits (must include Literature and Creative Writing)

Social Studies - 3 credits (US History + 2 others)

Math - 3 credits (Algebra I + 2 others)

Science - 2 credits (Biology + 1 other)

Bible - 2 credits

Phys.Ed. - 1 credit

Technology - 1 credit

Fine Arts - 1 credit

Health - 1/2 credit

Electives - 5-1/2 credits

Total Credits = 23

Once we know what we need to cover, we can plan how to spread those credit courses over the four years (maybe five if they take credit courses during Grade 8; and maybe as few as three if they plan to graduate early), and we can choose curriculum that is a good fit with our priorities and for our style. Then, we "Use the Force" to adapt where needed so that we can cover it all!

English

In Kennady's first two years of high school, her English credits were somewhat cobbled together, and to be honest, I wasn't exactly thrilled about how much we covered. We used a combination of materials from Institute for Excellence in Writing for the most part - Student Writing Intensive Level C and Fix-It! Grammar in Grade 9, and the High School Essay Intensivein Grade 10. Last year she also started on The Power in Your Hands from Writing with Sharon Watson, but put it on hold to work through during Grade 11. So last year, the composition portion of her English credit seemed a little light overall, because most of it was done at the very beginning and the very end of the school year.

This year Kennady has been doing a Writing class at our co-op. Since we'd decided on The Power in Your Hands for this class, we'd stopped using it last year. The co-op has been helpful because of the firm deadlines for assignments to be completed. (Did I mention that I'm the teacher? I enforce deadlines in my class, but have trouble doing so at home.) So by the end of this year, she'll have three of the needed four credits, and that's not counting the credits for Literature. We haven't decided what we'll do for English next year. Options include another class at the co-op, a class at the community college (dual enrolled), just using the writing assignments from her history text, or maybe the One Year Adventure Novel course at home, since she enjoys writing fiction.

Social Studies

In Grade 9, Kennady chose a course in Cultural Geography. Actually, it was one those courses that was intended to be on year, but we spread it over two years. She started it in Grade 8, and we took it a bit slower and added quite a bit to it, so it made a lot of sense to spread it into two years and then award the credit.

We have a bit of a habit of spreading courses over two years, it seems. That's one of the ways we "use the force", I guess! It was not in our original plan to spread Exploring World History from Notgrass over two years, but we were moving a lot slower than we should have been during Grade 10. Rather than make it harder than it needed to be, I reworked the course description and she completed the first half of the course and called it Ancient and Biblical History, since we included other things along the way. The half credit we had originally planned on for Literature included selections from the Notgrass course as well as some additional study of Shakespeare thanks to a Lightning Lit review.

So this year, we're finishing up Exploring World History, along with a few additions to make sure it's still worth a full credit. The Bible portion of this course is still be a full credit and the Literature portion is a half credit. Most of the full-length novels for the Lit portion fall in the second semester, which should work out well, since she's just finished one of her electives at co-op and theoretically has a bit more time! At the end of this year, she will have three History credits, but still needs US History, which we will do next year, using Exploring America from Notgrass. That will also be a Bible credit, so she'll have at least the two required.

Math

Ugh. This is where we most need "the force". In fact, I wish there was a force we could use that would make this subject a lot easier! For me and for Kennady. In Grade 9, she was doing pre-algebra, and because she didn't like it and it didn't come easily, she had a tough time getting any momentum going that year. She needed to take math slow and steady in order to get it - and the "steady" part of that equation is still a struggle. So that first year was a combination of Life of Fred, extra worksheets on occasion, and some review from A+ Interactive Math mini-courses.

Things went better in Grade 10 as Kennady continued to use Life of Fred, but with the Fred's Home Companion to help give structure. At the end of the year, we got to review No-Nonsense Algebra from Math Essentials to review and it was a good fit for Kennady, so that's what she is using this year. Next year, she will do a full credit Consumer Math course - at present I'm leaning towards Money 101 - so she will have at least the three required Math credits. We're considering the possibility of the first year college math if she does dual enrollment, but that will depend on several factors, not the least of which is whether she'll be able to test into that level.

Science

In our homeschool community, a lot of students do their required Biology course in Grade 9, but Kennady did a General Science. We used Survey of Science History & Concepts, an overview course that covers mathermatics, biology, chemistry, and physics.

She did Biology in Grade 10 with Biology 101 from Answers in Genesis. We had trouble sticking to a schedule with it though, especially since we had to be creative with adding reading and extras in order to round it out to high school credit level. Thankfully, near the end of the year, we reviewed Nature's Beautiful Order from Memoria Press, and that helped us out by providing that needed reading and some written work. Kennady has both her required Science credits, and unless she surprises me with a Science elective she wants to do next year, we are calling it good. But to be honest, I think this is the course where we've skimped and part of me worries that we really haven't done enough.

Next year?

Right now we're at the midway point of her Junior year, and we know what we'll need to cover next year. Kennady will have technically have the four required English credits, but that includes two half credit courses in Literature. So she will still do a full credit English course that focuses on Composition - we just need to decide what that will be. She has three Social Studies credits, but still needs US History, so we're planning to do Exploring America from Notgrass. That will also provide another Bible credit, and does have a full credit Literature component as well, if we choose to use it. If all goes well this year, she'll be finished with Algebra, and we'll plan on Consumer Math next year, and will have the option to take math at the college if we decide that's a good idea.

And the electives? That's a whole new post! Next week the Virtual Homeschool Fair will be focused on enriching our learning, so I'll be discussing our electives and some other extras then.

How are you covering it all in your homeschool? Do you do the complete curriculum or pull things together "using the force" the way we have been? Leave a comment and let me know! Also, please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers as we all share thoughts about "Our Homeschool Curriculum" in this week's Virtual Homeschool Fair.

This post is part of the Virtual Homeschool Fair 2018. This year the Virtual Homeschool Fair is hosted by Susan at Homeschooling Hearts & Minds. Visit my fellow bloggers listed below and find out about "Our Homeschool Curriculum" (all posts will be live by 8am EST on January 22, 2018)!

You sound quite a bit like us. I was already planning on using Notgrass World History with extras and making two courses from it, and we're using the Survey of Science for her last science course next year. Math is equally burdensome here and I'm struggling to find a good final math credit. Good luck!